There are presently three main classes of shaving razors available for sale to the public. The first and oldest class is usually constructed of a solid metallic body that houses a replaceable razor blade. The second class of razors has a similar handle to the first, but the entire head portion, including the razor blade, is replaceable. This class includes razors such as the Gillette.RTM. ATRA.RTM. brand razor, which has a replaceable tilting head. The third class of razors has the handle, head, and blade incorporated into a single piece of plastic. This design makes the entire unit assembly disposable.
The advent of disposable razors has brought increased convenience to the shaving process. Disposable plastic razors weigh less than the previous, bulky metallic razors, and have alleviated the necessity for disposing of the potentially harmful, unshielded used razor blades. When using a disposable razor, the user never need contact the unprotected cutting edge of a razor blade. In addition, as the number of users shaving with disposable razors has increased, the cost per razor has lowered until it has become almost the same price as purchasing just the disposable razor heads.
As presently available, most disposable razors are sold with a protective cover over the razor head. This cover is designed to protect the user from making inadvertent contact with the razor blade, potentially resulting in injury. As normally sold, each disposable razor has a single cover completely shielding the sharpened edges of the razor from any possible contact with an outer surface. While this is the standard disposable razor package, the cover has been suggested to provide multiple uses. Trotta, U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,722, discloses a disposable razor cover which, when inverted, exposes a polymeric material below the razor blades. The polymeric material is slanted at the same angle as the blades, and would apply a chemical composition onto the skin prior to contact with the blades. The chemical was designed to lower the friction caused by the razor against the user's skin.
It is also known to use razor blades for hand-held devices for trimming and cutting longer hair. Lewis, U.S. 2,234,440 discloses a device which has a handle and a cutting head having permanent comb-like teeth for guiding the hair into the cutting blade. Lewis distinguished his device from conventional shaving razors, since his improvement was specifically constructed to prevent cutting hair close to the skin. The Lewis device could only be used for trimming longer hairs such as those found in a mustache, beard or sideburns.
In the past there have been many improvements on razor technology, however, there still exists a need for an inexpensive way of providing the hair trimming capability of the Lewis razor, while taking advantage of the widespread existing base of disposable razor users.